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Paul Arriola probably isn't the most representative example of a Mexican soccer player. Born in California, he played for two U.S. national teams and, as a teen, trained at the Galaxy's academy in Carson. Though he could see Mexico from his house in Chula Vista, he never spent much time there and his Spanish is very much a work in progress. But Arriola, in his second year with the Tijuana Xolos, is representative of the direction Mexican soccer is headed. Because in recent years that country's top club teams have recruited dozens of U.S. citizens just like him to come play south of the border — something that would once have been unthinkable. "It's a...

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Paul Arriola probably isn't the most representative example of a Mexican soccer player.
Born in California, he played for two U.S. national teams and, as a teen, trained at the Galaxy's academy in Carson. Though he could see Mexico from his house in...

Herculez Gomez figures he has about five months to prove he deserves a spot on the U.S. roster for next summer's soccer World Cup. And he's measuring that 90 minutes at a time, with each game he plays providing a chance to raise his stock or drop him...

The list of Mexican players who have gone to Europe and distinguished themselves in soccer's most challenging leagues is a short one.
Two decades ago, Hugo Sanchez was in the middle of a run that saw him score 218 goals in 318 matches with Spain's...

The World Cup kicks off in Brazil in five months. And with the group-play pairings already set, the U.S. knows who it will play, where it will play and when it will play.
Still to be determined, however, is who will be in uniform when all that happens,...

U.S. national team Coach Juergen Klinsmann on Thursday summoned 29 players to training camp for next month's trio of World Cup qualifiers and, as expected, the Galaxy's Landon Donovan was left off the list.
But Galaxy teammate Omar Gonzalez, a defender...

Landon Donovan is back on the U.S. national team.
Sort of.
A 35-man provisional roster for July's Gold Cup was released by tournament organizers Friday and Donovan's name was on the list. But the key word here is provisional because the roster can --...

As first steps go, those were big ones that Landon Donovan took with the U.S. national team Friday. Maybe even big enough to carry him to Brazil.
Playing in his first international match in nearly 11 months, Donovan showed he hasn't lost a thing, scoring...

Officially it's a preseason friendly.
But given what's at stake, there's likely to be very little friendship on display during Saturday's exhibition between Mexican league rivals Club America and Tijuana at the StubHub Center in Carson.
For starters,...

It's generally not a good sign when a team starts all its games with its best scorer on the sidelines. But unless Coach Juergen Klinsmann suddenly decides, at 49, to suit up and play, that's the situation his U.S. soccer team finds itself in less than 100...

MEXICO CITY -- It was a sweet Olympic gold victory for Mexican soccer, yes. But that was last week. On Wednesday night, Mexico was defeated by the United States in a friendly match at the cavernous high-altitude Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, 1-0, the first wi